Our first fire in our earth oven crackled gleefully, wafting aroma filled memories of camping (complete with a good ten minute game of  musical chairs as we dodged the healthy plume of smoke emanating from the mouth). Our neighbours in the flats looked down upon us with scorn, disgust or good humoured skepticism depending on the direction the wind blew the smoke at that particular moment. But once the residual damp from our less than waterproofed woodpile had been exhausted they lost interest and our eyes stopped watering.

STEP 9: HOLLOW IT OUT

Once the outside of the oven is dry it is time to remove the sand, although you might feel like being lazy here this is the one point where I encourage you get your OCD on. Get a dust pan and brush out and sweep the tiles out thoroughly because sandy pizza is just a recipe for grit mouth.

STEP 10: BURN BABY BURN!

Now the really fun part! To dry out the inside completely light a fire inside (with dry firewood, if you don’t want to make any enemies). Now this is the moment we dreamed of when we designed our garden, sitting on the garden beds with a beer in hand watching the flames licking the earth oven sides, sun slipping away until that glowing orb was the centre of our universe.

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